Coach Megan Meixner looks to build program in sport she loves

Jacksonville girls' lacrosse coach Megan Meixner (left) talks with two of her players, Reina Kinnaly (center) and Amandajean Blackburn before heading inside Tuesday to watch some video after practice outside was called off because wet conditions.

Rick Scoppe/The Daily News

By Rick Scoppe-Sports Editor/The Daily News

Published: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 10:30 AM.

After playing lacrosse for four years at the University of Virginia — a stint that included three trips to the NCAA title match — Megan Meixner wanted to keep her hand (and stick) in the sport she loves.

After her Marine husband, John, was given transfer orders from Quantico, Va., to Camp Lejeune, the 28-year-old Meixner initially planned on becoming a referee before discovering that Jacksonville High School was starting a girls’ lacrosse team one year after adding a boys’ team.

“It worked out, and here I am,” Meixner said Tuesday before a video session with her team on the eve of the Cardinals’ first home match today at 5 p.m. against Ashley. “It’s awesome. It’s really cool.

“It’s different because coming from UVa you see people that they’re just going through the motions and like they’ve been doing this their whole life. And to see people actually learn it and want to learn it and get excited about doing stuff, that’s really what growing the sport is all about.”

The Cardinals, who dropped their season opener at Hoggard 16-1 last week, have 19 players. And while most had never played the sport until this year, a few do have some experience, led by junior Zoe Hurtado and Ana Edwards, a sophomore.

Other key players so far include Shavaine Byass, Amandajean Blackburn and Reina Kinnaly.

Meixner actually learned of the JHS opening from Edwards’ father, Mike, who is the girls’ director of the Onslow Youth Lacrosse Association. And his daughter worked to encourage girls to come out for the sport, including her twin sister, Maria.

After playing lacrosse for four years at the University of Virginia — a stint that included three trips to the NCAA title match — Megan Meixner wanted to keep her hand (and stick) in the sport she loves.

After her Marine husband, John, was given transfer orders from Quantico, Va., to Camp Lejeune, the 28-year-old Meixner initially planned on becoming a referee before discovering that Jacksonville High School was starting a girls’ lacrosse team one year after adding a boys’ team.

“It worked out, and here I am,” Meixner said Tuesday before a video session with her team on the eve of the Cardinals’ first home match today at 5 p.m. against Ashley. “It’s awesome. It’s really cool.

“It’s different because coming from UVa you see people that they’re just going through the motions and like they’ve been doing this their whole life. And to see people actually learn it and want to learn it and get excited about doing stuff, that’s really what growing the sport is all about.”

The Cardinals, who dropped their season opener at Hoggard 16-1 last week, have 19 players. And while most had never played the sport until this year, a few do have some experience, led by junior Zoe Hurtado and Ana Edwards, a sophomore.

Other key players so far include Shavaine Byass, Amandajean Blackburn and Reina Kinnaly.

Meixner actually learned of the JHS opening from Edwards’ father, Mike, who is the girls’ director of the Onslow Youth Lacrosse Association. And his daughter worked to encourage girls to come out for the sport, including her twin sister, Maria.

“Ana has been a huge help in getting this team started,” Meixner said. “She really reached out to a lot of girls and encouraged people to come out for the team. So I have to attribute most of that to her. She did a really good job. She’s very enthusiastic about it.”

As with any new team, most of the girls who showed up for the first day of practice had never played lacrosse. Meixner estimated two to five had played at some point, “but it wasn’t really consistent.”

“They learned it and had played like one game, that type of thing,” she said.

No matter, Meixner knew that would be one of the challenges she faced as the head coach of a program just getting off the ground. Given that, she focused on the basics and went from there with each practice.

“We focused a lot of the basics on stick skills and that kind of thing the first week, and slowly we’ve been introducing game transition and how to attack, what you should work on, and how to do defense, and then it’s kind of like just throw them out there. They’re smart girls. They’ll figure it out,” Meixner said.

“As I see how they’re learning, then we focus on OK, well, this is what we can do better here and this is what we can do better in other areas.”

The biggest challenge, she said, was that it was a new sport for most of her players.

“It takes a lot of eye-hand coordination to pick up a stick, throw it, catch it, cradle it. That’s really challenging,” she said. “Also on defense, even when you get to UVa, who’s been at the top (for years), there’s always breakdown in defense. It’s not that easy. It’s very challenging. So that’s definitely what we’re focusing on still.”

But one of the first things she taught was how to scoop up ground balls. Why?

“We knew the ball would be on the ground a lot,” she said.

While lacrosse isn’t as physical for the girls as it is for the boys, there is still contact. The sport isn’t for the faint of heart, and Meixner doesn’t baby her girls.

“Some of them, they’re athletes and they go for it and they know what the deal is,” she said. “Others we just have to say, ‘You get checked on the finger. That happens, and it hurts and we know it, but you’ve got to play through it and that kind of thing.’

“We tell them you have to be tough and you have to be strong when you’re out there.”

During practice early, Meixner let her players try all the positions, but after a few sessions began to put them in positions that seemed to best suit their abilities. Still, she said, “it’s evolving. We still have a lot to go through and figure out.”

But the Cardinals have a coach who knows the sport and is backed up by an assistant, Meredith Lee, who also is well-versed in the sport having played it at Rutgers.

Meixner comes from an athletic family. Her mother, Debbie, started the youth lacrosse program in their hometown of Devon, Pa., and coached field hockey at Villanova. Meixner’s two sisters played college lacrosse, Amy at the University of North Carolina and Lori at Penn State University.

The younger Megan had plenty of college lacrosse scholarship offers coming out of high school, but after visiting UVa she knew she’d found a home. While playing for the Cavaliers, she was on three teams that made it to the finals, including her senior year when she started at attack and scored three goals in a 15-13 loss to Northwestern in 2007.

While her sisters tried to persuade her to go to UNC or Penn State, Megan said she “wanted to do my own thing after being Amy and Lori’s sister.” And at Jacksonville, she’s again doing her own thing, guiding a program through the inevitable growing pains of its inaugural season.

What are her expectations this season? A certain number of wins isn’t included, she said. What is expected, Meixner said, is to live up to legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden’s definition of success.

“His definition of a successful team is you did your best every single time. That’s what I told the girls. That’s what a successful team is,” she said, “and that’s what I want to accomplish at every single game is to play our best, never give up and always go at it 100 percent.”

But you get the idea Meixner expects wins to come sooner rather than later for the Cardinals.

“I expect we’re going to get better and better and better,” she said. “I’m sure all the teams are very aware that we’re a new team, but they should expect a lot from us, especially in the next couple years. We’re going to work hard to be more competitive against the teams that have been here for 10-plus years.”